In the first semester, the United States continued to gather momentum, albeit slowly, and the European economy has continued to stabilize. In China, quantitative easing policies haven’t been able to halt the gradual slowdown of its economy’s growth, while in the emerging markets of Asia economic growth maintained stagnant or declined. In Japan, wage increases have led to a return in consumer spending, but capital investments by corporations have continued to be on the side of caution. Under the current set of circumstances, with China’s downward trend and an interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve in the waiting, there’s potential for market volatility.

In order to sustain on-going growth, in the first semester of FY2015 Yanmar’s undertakings were focused on the following aspects:

1. Increase Net Sales and Market Share in Yanmar’s Key Markets of Its Core Business Operations

Expand the degree of new business operations and analyze other opportunities for their potential

2. Intensify Group Expansion

Execute financial strategies that lead to a boost in enterprise value

Make Supply Chain Management improvements that result in greater production/sales/inventory efficiency

3. Continue to Provide New Products that Exceed Customer Expectations

Strengthen R&D and QA through concurrent engineering processes

Utilize SmartAssist telematic technology to ramp up the after sales business

4. Continue to Actively Contribute to the Development of Local Communities Worldwide

Conduct environmental protection initiatives and make contributions to society

These undertakings led to the achievement of the following consolidated results: Net Sales of ¥354.3 billion, 11.6% more than in FY2014, Ordinary Profit of ¥17.5 billion, 13.4% less than in FY2014, Net Sales Ratio of 5%, and Net Profit of ¥10.9 billion, 17.2% less than in FY2014.
Sales outside of Japan rose by 19.9% to a total of ¥173.6 billion, and an Overseas-derived Sales Weight of 49%.

Yanmar Group FY2015 Business Results Forecast:

For fiscal 2015 end, we expect consolidated Net Sales of ¥715 billion, ¥59.9 billion more than in FY2014, Operating Profit of ¥31.5 billion, ¥8.2 billion less than in FY2014 and Ordinary Profit of ¥32 billion, ¥7.6 billion less than in FY2014.

Note: The above forecast is based on currently available data, and subject to changes in market demand, exchange rates and other economic variables.